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Rep. Michael Kirwan of Ohio dies, July 27, 1936

On this day in 1970, Rep. Michael Kirwan (D-Ohio), who was first elected to the House in 1936, died at Bethesda Naval Hospital during his 17th term at age 83. At the time of his death, following a fall at the University Club of Washington, D.C., Kirwan was dean of the Ohio delegation.

He was also seventh in line in House seniority, the second-oldest-serving member and chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Public Works. Since 1948, he had continuously chaired the Democratic National Congressional Committee (now the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee), as the first Northerner to hold that post.

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Kirwan was born in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., and moved to Youngstown, Ohio, a steel producing center, in 1907. During World War I, he served in France as a sergeant in the U.S. Army.

Kirwan unsuccessfully sought to leverage his public works’ committee position to secure federal funding for a canal that would link Lake Erie with the Ohio River via waterways located in his Youngstown district. He also championed the National Aquarium, which is located on the lower level of the U.S. Department of Commerce Building on Constitution Avenue.

At one point, Kirwan slashed funding for a water control program to retaliate against Sen. Wayne Morse of Oregon, who had cut funding for the aquarium. Morse, who became a Democrat in 1955, had disparagingly dubbed it “a fish hotel.” Kirwan said, “I’ll hold up Oregon’s water projects until Morse learns something about fish.”

Rep. Gerald Ford (R-Mich.), then the minority leader, remembered Kirwan as “a colorful individual in a wonderfully unique way.” His Democratic Ohio colleague Michael Feighan, said, “He had unswerving belief in his Creator and boundless confidence in his fellow man. He was kind and considerate and yet firm in his convictions and truly dedicated to every cause which he felt was right.”